Churi Ayam or Chicken Thieves
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| 2101 Raffles Scout Troop (Sitting from Left Amos Koh Ah Meng 1st, Chey Chor Wai 3rd, Lionel Lee 4th, Tay Wee lee 5th Kwok Wai Keong 6th, Tan Poh Puay 7th, Kwek Siew Jin 8th, Kwek Teng Khoon 9th, S Puhaidran 10th Sitting from Right Lim Kim Quee 1st, Leong Teep Khee 3rd Siva Kandiah 4th, Chong Hong Leong 5th Chua Seng Chew 6th. Standing Last Row from Left Denis Tan 1st, Koh Chee Wah 2nd, Liow Siew Choon 5th, Teo Guan Chye 8th, Khoo Teng Chye 11th. Standing Last Row from from Right Chia Chee Keong 1st Ho Lim Eng 4th) |
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| 2101 Scouts Patch |
In those days, Scouting was very fun. We learnt to tie
knots that turned out to be useful later. Cecil remembered these knots as Reef, Sheet Bend, Bow Line, Clove Hitch, Round Turn And Two Half Hitches, Sheep
Shank, Fisherman’s and Highwayman Knots. We learnt diagonal and square lashings
so we could build structures and towers with wooden or bamboo poles. We were
taught and tested on backwoodsman skills like cooking chicken without removing
feathers but by caking the chicken in mud and throwing the whole into a fire. After a while, when the chicken was fully cooked, we could remove the mud along with the feathers. These
survival skills were the same skills taught to us by the Commandos during our
National Service in the Singapore Army.
We held our meetings on Saturdays at the school fields next to Stamford Road or Beach Road. Otherwise, we would have scout outings like camping and hiking over the weekends. The
best hikes were the Combined Hikes with the Girl Guides from Raffles Girls’ School.
Legend has it, that when the Scout went a-camping, we also went a-stealing,
chickens that is, hence the name Churi Ayam.
We used to hike in the Jurong-Marsiling area in the secondary forest
between Jurong, Choa Chu Kang and Lim Chu Kang roads. At that time the Jurong
Industrial Estate was just being beginning as the factories were being built.
We would hike across the Bo Lim and Choa Chu Kang cemeteries and across the
vegetable and chicken farms on the Jurong and Lim Chu Kang hillsides. The Nanyang University’s
Library with its distinctive Chinese style architecture, was a very visible landmark
from which we obtained our bearings on many a hot and thirsty afternoon. One
famous hike route was from the Old Upper Jurong Road to the Pasir Labar boat shed
which is now the life-firing area of the Singapore Army. We would passed through the various hills, Peng Kang, Botak, Elephant and others which we would later, be charging up with rifles drawn and firing blanks, when we were in National Service training.
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| Track 22 Ponggol - Chan Bok and Lionel in picture |
When 2101 Scouts go camping, we used the Ponggol Track 22
jetty or Ponggol Track 17. MacRitchie reservoir around the area of the Lim Bo
Seng Memorial and Mount Faber were two other favourite campsites. These two
locations were often used for the Scout Investiture. This is the induction of
the tenderfoots, when recruits were given their scarfs and received into the
Troop after a short probation. During the investiture we used torches lighted
up using rags soaked in kerosene. Both were memorable locations, repleted with tall
tales and true.
MacRitchie reservoir was the place where we taught the
tenderfoots to stalk courting couples. In the cover of night, we would dare
them to go as near to these couples who were in passionate embrace to peep. That must be their first introduction to the subject of the birds and the
bees. In the morning, the tenderfoots were asked to uncover the newspapers strewn around the park and look for condoms.
The Alkaff Mansion in Mount Faber was another
favourite spot for investiture. It was not occupied at that time and was a
dilapidated old house. That was the place where the 2101 scouts would tell
ghost stories to one another. Teep Khee remembered an incident at the Alkaff
Mansions when Maurice Neo, who became the Rugby Captain, stole some cans of
milk from a nearby campsite. The adults and burly campers came to our site
brandishing daggers, then rummaged through our bags, took back the stolen goods,
took our scout daggers and whatever food cans they wanted and left us high and
dry.
When we had our activities in the school, we would
often build rickety bridges across the Stamford Canal which was a black and
stinky canal discharging waste to the sea at Beach Road. This canal formed the
west boundary of the RI grounds. Across Stamford Road is the St Andrew’s
Cathedral, still standing today. The canal was covered up and became
the pavement of the Raffles City along the now busy Stamford Road.
The canal was very dirty and smelly. One of the rites
of passage for the tenderfoot scout was to cross the canal on a rope. We would
tie the rope across the canal from the school field from one of our scout-built towers to a tree across the canal
and we would hang ourselves upside down and crossed by swinging our legs across the rope in tandem
with our arms. Later, during National Service , this skill came in handy when
we soldiers need to cross raging rivers. Teep Khee and Cecil both remembered
that this technique was called the Monkey Crawl.
The scout dens of the two troops were side by side in
the garages between the School office and the teacher’s common room. The scout dens were like a second home to us. During our time both scout troops put up a loft each, like mezzanine floors. Teep Khee was the Quartermaster of the 2101 Scouts and it was his responsibility to keep the den clean. Many of us slept overnight in the dens and then expected to see ghosts noted to
haunt the teacher’s common room. In 1967, the teacher’s common room was torn
down because of foundations instability. So we held the scout campfires at the empty space in front of the
dens.
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| 1st Malaysian Scout Jamboree |
In 1967, the 1st Malaysian Scout Jamboree was held in Teluk Bahang, Penang. 2101 and 2102 Raffles sent a large contingent. Lionel and Chor Wai attended that Jamboree. One memorable event was the visit by the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman to the Jamboree. Lionel recalled that we took the Malayan Railway to Butterworth then crossed by ferry to Penang. The railway track broke down at Tanjong Malim and the whole Singapore contingent had to sit in the train coaches for hours on a hot and sunny afternoon. We arrived in Penang late at night and was housed in a school for the night.
Every year, during the June holidays, the scouts held their Job Week. In that week, the scouts would go out in pairs to various households to look for odd jobs in return for donations. We polished shoes, washed cars, swept floors among other jobs, after which we gave a Job Done sticker for the household to paste on their door and be not bothered by the scouts anymore for the week.
Lionel claimed he discovered a method for Job Week that made 2101 Scouts Troop very rich. Doing odd jobs at the landed properties was tedious and walking distances took much time. Instead Lionel went to the HDB blocks which had generally poor people staying and thus was avoided by the scouts but these blocks could be combed in a very short time. So instead of asking for jobs, he asked for donations even 20 cents would do, going from one door to the next. After which he gave a Job Done sticker so they will not be bothered again. It was quite unethical because he was literally selling those stickers but in an hour he could comb at least 2 blocks and received quite a lot of money. After this the 2101 scouts used this method for job week and filled up their coffers.
Scouting was really fun and it gave us many
survival and leadership skills which, unknown to us then, proved useful when
we did our NSF training.
Contributed by Lionel, Cecil and Teep Khee
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